Little River Canyon is Low

So Adam and I paddled LRC on Sunday and it was pretty darn low. How low you might ask. We figured around -8.5" on the Hwy. 35 bridge guage. According to previous low water excursions Adam had taken, Suicide would be a portage fest so we opted for upper Two and Chairlift down to below Bottleneck where we would hike out the Powell trail. If you have never paddled these sections of AL whitewater then I would strongly suggest not going near them at the levels we had Sunday. Wait for some more water. But for the two of us we were anxious just to be out there. It was a long day with portages pretty much mandatory at Roadblock and at Humpty's though we might have managed Humpty's had it not been for the disgusting toilet bowl whirlpool sucking water under the rocks just to the right of the boof. However everything else went. All I can say is that in the future I will bring a playboat when the river is at that low of a level. But at least I have some uber low water pics and video to show for it. And heck it was better then sitting on the couch.

Low water Roadblock. This one would have been pretty boat and body abusive so we opted for the portage here.

The boof at Humpty Dumpty's quite dry but doable had it not been for.....

the nasty whirlpool of death about 5 feet away. If you didn't have enough speed heading for the boof you could have been sucked back into this. Most of the water in the river was going here.

This is Humpty's from below WITH water and.....

this was last Sunday.

Adam seal launching after the portage.

Here is a cool shot of me dropping in at Bottleneck. For those who have seen this rapid before at decent water levels it's a whole new place when things are this low.

Adam in the "meat" at Bottleneck. Still a fun drop despite the level with even some play at the bottom.

Adam mid-cartwheel at the bottom of Bottleneck in his BIG Burn. A playboat here would have been fuuun.

The long hike out. Not as bad as the hike at Chairlift though the Powell trail had lots downed trees.

Sorry the pics are low resolution. They are all stills from a video.

Till next time

Stay Wet

and for the love
Pray for Rain